If Jesus Christ was your pastor, would He hire interpreters for the deaf in His church?   If blind people came to His church, would they leave blind? If those with cancer came to His services, would they still leave with cancer? The church preaches about Christ every week, they preach about His great power, they preach about His great love, they preach about His ability to heal sickness and disease. So where is this great power in the church today? Why are we not seeing great signs and wonders by His followers like the early church did? Do you ever ask yourself these questions? I certainly do.

I believe the reason we are not seeing these great exploits among the majority of believers today is because the majority of believers today are carnal, not spiritual. (1Corinthians 3:1) They are babes in Christ. They have allowed themselves to become so entangled by the cares of this world that they have become unfruitful and powerless. “And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the Word, but the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4;19)

Now I realize that we all must go through maturing stages in our Christian walk, and to be carnal at some point is natural, but for 20 years or longer? We have those in the body of Christ that have been saved for decades and yet are still babes in Christ. They are simply too lazy or too busy to study their bibles and renew their minds with the Word of God. They never grow spiritually and as a result, have become defeated and ignorant of the authority Christ has given us as believers. Another reason is that many churches are stuck in man-made traditions which quench the Holy Spirit and His power. Still others simply do not believe that the supernatural gifts are operating in the new testament church today. They do not understand spiritual warfare, how to use the authority God has given us in the name of Christ to combat demonic forces that are running rampant in the lives of our loved ones and people throughout our world.

Whatever the reason, this type of carnality and ignorance of God's Word will cause us not to walk in the fullness of the power and authority that He intended. I am thoroughly convinced that the Lord has once again become weary concerning the condition of His church and has issued a change coming. Jesus tells us in the book of Mark, “these signs shall follow them that believe, they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:17,18) Do you see this happening on a regular basis in the church? I certainly don't. Although I do believe we are about to see the return of great signs and wonders to the church that will play a major part in evangelism in these last days.

If we look back at the evangelistic methods of Christ Himself and the early church, we see where they raised the dead, healed sickness and disease, opened the eyes of the blind, “and many believed.” (Acts 9:40-42) Signs and wonders are to shew forth the power and glory of God, and they were meant to be part of evangelism to bring people into the Kingdom. God isn't just showing off, and our focus isn't to be on signs and wonders, but on the saving of souls. For the last several decades God has been preparing a generation of believers behind the scenes. He's raising up an army of believers who will refuse to compromise their faith, who seek not money or fame, who walk in a power and a boldness unlike anything we have seen in a very long time. They are the ones who will be leading the way in the coming days. So where is the power of God in the church? It's coming, and when it begins to spread throughout this earth like wildfire, there will be no mistaking it.

Jeff Allen